Intertwined
by BunnyPrincess101
Summary: Post-Frontier. The Digidestined drifted apart after that day. Then something drags them all back together, and they find a world, changed from the one they remember, that needs them. But Kouichi's keeping secrets that could destroy them. Or save them.


**Intertwined**

**Prologue: The Beginning of the Beginning**

Disclaimer: Didn't own the last time I checked . . . wait, let me go look again . . . no, darn it, I still don't own it.

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Lowemon was panting hard, barely able to hold his staff as it was. The dark light that normally throbbed around it was dimming as his power grew weaker. He was only a step from unconsciousness as it was.

"Shadow Lance!"

The staff flared once with dark light but then dimmed again, barely brighter than before. Lowemon gritted his teeth as he swung out widely, missing his quarry by only a few inches. The effort nearly escaped him and he stood still for a moment, trying to catch his breath.

"Are you really so weak you can't even conjure up an amount of power that small?"

Lowemon's head jerked up as a young girl's voice, filled with ice, rang through the room. "I thought you would be the most fun when you played my games, but I guess I was wrong."

"Shadow Lance!"

The darkness hanging around the staff expanded and twisted, "illuminating" the darkness hanging around the round just enough to reveal Lowemon's pale, tired, face. He slashed at her again, but she easily ducked out of the way and handspringed out of striking range.

"That wasn't very nice, now was it?" she sang. She danced into the light from one of the dim torches in the room, revealing curly brown hair framing her pale face, her beetle-black eyes shining like jewels. "But at least you've made this more interesting."

Lowemon was breathing hard, and the girl was too far away and too fast for him to hit in his condition - he could barely stand, much less fight. "Wait - you're not finished already, are you?" The girl peered closer, the corners of her mouth turning up in a wolfish grin as she observed his condition. "Oh well. _Ropes, bind and surround!"_

Ropes appeared above her head as she swirled her hand around, smiling maliciously as she pointed at Lowemon, directing the ropes. The ropes shot at him, binding his arms and torso tightly, and tied on contact, leaving him completely immobile. A loud _thump_ sounded as he hit the ground.

Data engulfed him for a second and the unraveled, revealing fifteen-year-old Koichi Kimura lying on a bed of loose rope, barely conscious.

The girl approached. Her light brown hair and black clothing were all that he could see from his squinted eyes. Then, her face appeared right in front of his.

"Eight days, thirteen hours, two minutes, and forty-five seconds. You've lasted much longer than anyone else. But I don't get it. Why didn't you call your friends? If you had my sisters would have let you go. But, now you've had to suffer by yourself." She pouted. "I don't get it. I'll get Aster, she'll know." The girl knelt on her knees and cried, "Aster!"

If Koichi could have managed he would have clung to his ears in pain. The screech must have alerted anyone within 5 miles. He had barely recovered from the headache when footsteps sounded, heels clicking on the ground.

"Yes, Gwendolyn?"

"Sis, I don't-"

"Gwendolyn, we've talked about this. In public you are not to call me _sis_."

"Sorry. Aster, I don't understand this boy."

Because of Gwendolyn's body kneeling in front of him Koichi wasn't able to see her 'sis' of this girl, but he had grown familiar with her cruel features, dark brown hair tied back behind her head. She was at least fifteen or sixteen years older than Gwendolyn's five, six-ish body - placing her at a little older than Kouichi.

"It's complicated. Humans have certain emotions and loyalties that must be broken before they follow orders." Koichi felt a finger slide down his neck and knew that Aster was behind him just out of sight. As she spoke again he felt the chill from her breath. "But they will be broken."

"Like hell," Koichi whispered with ice in his voice. He felt a great force smack him across the head and he grew farther from consciousness.

"He has a bad mouth, sis, but he is really cute."

"Gwendolyn, what did I tell you?!"

"Sorry."

"He's the only one that knows how to cross from the human world to the digital world, so I'm sending him back to collect the others."

"Aster, can I say goodbye first?"

"Of course."

"Thanks. Goodbye, Warrior of Darkness." As Koichi's eyes slipped shut he felt the presence of something cool on his lips.

"That's enough, Gwendolyn. He's leaving now." Koichi felt the something remove itself from him as his body began to tingle before being thrown into a whirlwind.

"Goodbye, Warrior of Darkness. I'll be waiting for another kiss when you return."

Koichi held onto his last piece of consciousness as long as he could. _No, not my friends. They can't go to the digital world or else they'll-_

He slept.

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**Author's Notes:** Well, I'm not going to thank Helen for formatting it because all she _did_ was format it, 'cause she was too _busy_ to beta-read it, so, thank you, Kathryn, for being my temporary beta-reader! This is the first chapter of Intertwined . . . next time, we learn exactly what happened to the other digidestined, why they drifted apart, and their reactions! Yay!


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